Health focus

CHMI PLUS Status

Profile Completeness Rating

Monitoring & Evaluation Reporting

Summary

uNotify is a technology provider that provides various technologies to record, authenticate, analyze and relay dosage information to administrators of TB programs.

Key program components

uNotify offers 4 different devices which can all be used to help ensure adherence to drug regimens, specifically for TB cases. All devices send information to a centralized information management system. This server monitors program activity and alerts personnel when required (e.g., when doses are missed). The management system also maintains electronic records of all patients (EMR) and automates administrative tasks. Benefits:

Reduction in travel to provider sites that is currently required for checking records

Automatic and timely alerts when doses are missed

Reduction in the auditing time that required to ascertain the veracity of records

Elimination of tedious analysis of paper records to spot irregularities

Allows program-wide performance tracking and reporting

Automation of administrative tasks

uNotify allows providers to pick a recording and authentication device that is best suited to the program's context and cost-performance constraints:

The uBox is a palm-sized, intelligent pill dispenser, which reminds a patient when it is time to take medication and records when a patient does so. It also tracks visits by program personnel via electronic keys with unique IDs which are inserted into the box. The box requires refilling once a month.

The uPrint ensures that patients receive their drugs from providers using fingerprint identification. The solution consists of a fingerprint reader attached to a processing device, like a netbook or a cell phone, running custom software. Prints are recorded by pressing the finger on a reader. The system then searches a database of previously registered patients and personnel prints to identify and authenticate the user. Each provider is equipped with a unit and both patients and providers register their prints to establish the meeting. While readers tend to be expensive, they are affordable in, for example, urban settings where a single provider may serve a hundred patients a year. Operation ASHA is currently using uPrint with documented success.

The uPhone is an ordinary cell phone equipped with software that allows program implementers to collect detailed health information. It allows community workers with basic training to check off indicators related to TB.

The uMessage, is the simplest way to use uNotify. It records doses using a basic cell phone with no custom software. All treatment providers are given a cell phone that can send and receive text messages (SMS). Providers text the patient ID to the uNotify system when dispensing the dose. At the end of each day, the system generates a list of all patients who did not receive their dose and sends it to program personnel for follow up. While uMessage provides limited authentication, it is cost-effective in communities where providers serve only a few patients every year, (e.g., sparsely populated rural areas).

Scale

Stage:

Existing or expanding (post-pilot)

December 2014: clients

Technology

Technology used:

Computer

Phones

Unique ID

Goal of technology use:

To improve communications between health providers and patients outside of traditional doctor visits

To improve data collection, organization, or analysis

Financials

Primary source of funding:

Donor

Additional source(s) of funding:

Funder(s):

D-lab

MIT-Public service centre

Motorola

ONCIIA

RGK-Center

Parent Organizations

Yes, there is a separate organization that manages or implements this program.

Related Programs

Operation ASHA is a registered non-profit that has taken TB treatment to the doorsteps of 6.1 million individuals living in disadvantaged areas. It operates in over 3,000 villages and slums in eight states spread across India and two provinces in Cambodia.

Living goods is an “Avon-like” network of franchised community health promoters who provide health education and earn a living selling essential health products door-to-door at prices affordable to the poor.